WIGuide

Personally, I really like my LTB M/M graphite rod for my square bill fishing. I haven't had problems getting fish out of cover with it, granted we don't have as big of bass up here as they do down south, but we do have northern pike which can put up a heck of a fight and I've landed plenty of those that have come out of some nasty stuff with that rod too.

I'd opt for a St. Croix 6'8" M/XF in the Mojo or higher series for your wacky rigs. I personally use the LTB version and it's one heck of a stick.

I use the Rapala Braid Scissors. There's apparently two different models of their scissors, one with a serrated blade, and one without. I have the ones with the serrated edge and they have worked great, for somewhere in the $2-3 dollar range that works for me. I also had a pair of the KVD ones from Walmart, and they only lasted about a year before I junked them. Wouldn't purchase them again.

Unless you're independently wealthy, wait on buying that boat until you're out of college, or after the first few years. Most colleges require students to live on campus at least the first year, and when you get off campus you'll most likely be looking at college type housing. Unless things are drastically different there than any other college town I've visited, places in your budget to rent with friends will not have a garage and if everyone has a vehicle, there won't be any extra room in the driveway to park it either.

Welcome to BR!

I have a 1997 Sport R70 with an Evinrude 130. Although I haven't fished out of a PT185 my friend has an 05 PT175. Looking at the Ranger, the boat is a 95, but the motor is newer than the boat, I believe it's a 2001. The boat has an optional 1/2 deck extension which makes a huge difference in how that boat fishes. When I purchased mine, it didn't have one and after adding it, it makes the boat feel way bigger, not to mention it makes a great place for your fishing partner to put his/her stuff that's out of the way. Overall, even though it's a slightly smaller boat, the Ranger has more storage, especially in the back deck area. The Ranger is narrower than the Tracker by 2 inches, but it's also slightly shorter too so stability should be about equal. Rod storage might be an issue in the Ranger as the rod locker will only hold a rod up to about 7'3" without modifications. For some that might be an issue, for me, it's not in the least. I'm unsure about the rod storage on the PT185, but if it was like my friends 175, modifications needed to be made as the cut out that goes under the front deck was very small and did not allow for nearly the number of rods to be stored as it looked like it should. One note about the Ranger is that it has two livewells. The rear is divided and big enough for tournament use, so the front really isn't needed. I use mine as a cooler as it's well insulated. Ranger Pros: better shape, bigger motor, more storage, better ride, accommodations for the passenger (rod ramp, storage), fishes larger than it's size. Ranger Cons: Older, not max hp for hull Tracker Pros: Larger boat, newer Tracker Cons: Not max hp for hull, no passenger accommodations, looks like it sat out, possible rod locker issues, condition. If it were me, I have no doubt which one I'd buy. I'd take the Ranger all day every day, but that's just my opinion. Yours may differ.

That particular boat doesn't have a fuel gauge because it comes with a 6 gallon portable tank instead of a built in one.

My girlfriend Mikaila, decided early on this year that she wanted to fish a tournament with me. I was willing to fish one with her, and a club up north has a few opens every year one of which I've never gotten to fish. I had fished the lake once a few years ago, but not enough to feel comfortable fishing a tournament. Anyway, we decided to go up last Friday, as it'll probably be the last day we would have a chance to fish there together before the tourney. I was expecting the fish to be in the process of spawning, and water temp told me they should be, but there were very few beds. I saw some big smallies cruising anywhere from 4'-10' but couldn't coax them into biting. Late in the day, I saw a nice looking bed and pitched my dropshot to it and hit right away, but pulled my bait off. Mikaila threw a few casts at it, but couldn't get it to turn so I pitched my ds back in there. In the meantime, Mikaila threw a cast that went "slightly" askew and crossed my line. No sooner had she done so, and that smallie fired again on mine so I set the hook. Mikaila, feeling the thump on her line, sets the hook and hooks my line, so I'm fighting her and the fish and the fish pulls off. She reeled in and made a better cast and the smallie fired on her ned rig, but pulled off. I put a tube in front of it's face a few times to no avail. The only other bottom contact bait I had rigged up at the time was a football jig, and figured, "what the heck, it's worth a shot". No sooner did that jig hit the bottom and that smallie absolutely crushed it. I thought I had it hooked good and got it all the way to the boat. Mikaila dipped the net into the water and the fish was halfway in the net when the jig popped out. That smallie darted right back to the bed, where Mikaila managed to hook it one more time before finally sticking it well enough to bring it to the boat. Her first ever smallie went 19 1/2" setting her PB bar pretty high. She wasn't done though, as about 10 minutes later she caught a 19" also off a bed. I had my drone with and am really kicking myself for not putting it up in the air when I missed the first fish. I've honestly never seen a fish that stubborn and not get finicky after getting stuck. It would have made for some pretty cool footage, but in the end, we have the memories of a special fish.

Awesome tiger!

For what you're looking for, I'd say probably go with a M/F and MH/F.

Awesome! Glad you got a little more speed out of it!

To answer your questions about the cable steer vs electric steer. Cable steer is quicker response time which is great when fishing shallow hazard filled water. Also, after running it for about 5 minutes you don't have to think to operate it and the pedal works with your body. Some of the early cable steer motors made you rock your foot side to side to turn which would be ok if you weren't trying to balance on two feet. Also, from a dead stop I know which direction I'm going to go when I turn it on and don't have to look down at the head to see which direction it's pointed. In the recent years, there have been drastic improvements made to the electric steer motors and you're seeing more people using them in the bass fishing world. The ultrex combines the two sort of making it the best of both worlds. I haven't got to use one yet to see if it's really that good or just hyped. As far as where to mount the pedal, I have mine directly in the middle as most do. When you fish from the front 99% of the time you're not fishing at a 90 degree angle straight off the side. You're angled forward especially when moving since if you throw directly to the side you'll soon pass your bait and will be dragging it while you're trying to reel it in. Even when fishing with someone else on the front deck you're still normally angled to give that person water to fish as well so having it right in the middle allows for you to stand comfortably and the angle of your leg only changes some, but not as drastic as what you're thinking.

Pretty sure he's talking about something like this. http://thmarine.com/torque-tab# You'll be fine to run it without the aftermarket tab. You might feel a little more torque in your steering when you're running at speed, but it's not going to be enough to wear out your steering. Most boats don't run these, and if it caused that much wear running without them, people would be replacing steering helms on a monthly basis.

One thing you have to remember is you are working with a very small amount of power with a 6 horse so weight is extra crucial. If you can get your boat to plane out your speed will increase drastically as it takes less power to push your boat on top of the water than it does to plow through the water. A few things you mentioned in your original post, that you have a tm and battery and from the video you posted it looks like those items plus yourself, your gas tank, and obviously the motor are all located in the back of the boat. The more weight you place towards the rear of the boat, the harder it is to get it to plane out. Before you mess around with the motor, try moving your tm and battery up front and see if that improves things. Make sure your motor is set to the lowest trim setting possible and remove any weight you can from your rig. If it seems like it's close to getting up but just can't quite do it, try moving your mass forward as much as you can. Going as slow as it is you can somewhat crouch down and get as far forward as your arm will stretch just to try to get it up. It is entirely possible your boat does not have enough hp to plane out, which although that would stink, it could be a reality. Investing in something like a fin that bolts to the cavitation plate could help, or you could have the same result, so try shifting the weight first and see where that gets you.

They're sweet rods. The cool thing about going to the factory is you can hold and fiddle with basically any rod they make. Plus they sell their "B-stock" rods there. B-stock rods are still better than a lot of companies A stock. Most only have slight cosmetic flaws, and when I say slight I mean I've held A's and B's together and couldn't tell the difference. Most of the time it's something like a slightly duller spot in the clear or a guide is ever so slightly out of line. The best part about those is they are deeply discounted. They don't carry the same warranty as A-stock, but if a rod doesn't break within the first few fish catches it's not usually a manufacturer defect, it's user error.

Welcome to the forums!

It sounds like there's still some line twist going on. Ways to eliminate it on a spinning reel would be to make sure you're manually flipping the bail, not reeling while a fish is pulling drag, and also to make sure the bail roller is moving freely. Remove the twist that's already there by cutting off any lures/hardware and letting the line out behind the boat while you idle. Take it all the way down to the spool and then reel it back in. If you don't have a boat, you can do the same thing in a flowing stream or river. Once you do that, if problems persist, you may just want to look into purchasing a new reel.

Most android devices you push and hold the power and volume down button at the same time to screen shot. Some devices will vary, but that's the generic sequence to try. Also if you get screens in the future that the only way to exit is to click through it, you can use the home button to exit, then either go in and force close your browser to close that tab.

Best destination fishing stores, Bass Pro Pyramid, and Springfield Bass Pro. If you're in northern/central Wisconsin let me know and I'll take you out. Also, I don't live far from the St. Croix rod factory and if you need a rod they'll have it!

Only fished Sunday afternoon and Monday. I expected a real zoo on Sunday, but people must have either limited out or got tired of trying as there were parking spots left at the landing, with some still parked along the road. Had to wait 20+ minutes to put the boat in the water as some holiday warriors cut in front of me only to park in front of the ramp and load everything in the boat. I got the last laugh though as they forgot to put the plug in. Saw a pontoon run through a stump field and smoke one pretty good. My gf was with and we did a little bass fishing and crappie fishing to keep her reeling something in since it's been a while since the last few trips she's had have been tough. It worked out well as we caught a nice dinner of crappies and she hooked into her new personal best largemouth. She was pretty stoked, and I was happy for her! Sunday afternoon, I went to a little lake that most people don't even know exist. On and off rain and wind made me debate how long I wanted to stay. Managed to get caught in a small thunderstorm that actually hailed on me. It was quick moving though, and passed in about half an hour. I caught a few fish including this sunfish that decided it wanted some of a 7" lizard but nothing special. I did finally get one big girl to come out and play. It was just a half inch shy of tying my pb and made the trip totally worthwhile. All in all a pretty good memorial day weekend.

I hadn't in the past because the actual lock portions of my hatch latches are seized. I have new locks that I'm installing to keep it locked up now. The funny thing is they didn't take anything out of the compartments other than the back one that was open to keep my charger plugged in. You're definitely right on not realizing how valuables your possessions are. I've looked at the Lock-R-Bars, but don't currently have the $500 or so dollars for them. Hopefully, in the future, I can buy them. Haha, I wish I had Elvis! I don't know how he'd handle the winters though. Maybe Crockett and Tubbs could take over for the winter. I was thinking something permanent, but the motion detector alarms would be a good idea! Do you use the ones meant for a driveway alarm or something similar?

Welcome to br!

Very true, especially since I have a good one! haha Thank you, I hope so as well. I did report file a police report and it sounds like I wasn't the only one. The officer was actually headed up the road a mile or so after they were done at my place. I don't due to the fact that the locks on my boat no longer work. I've got new ones that I'll be installing today. Funny thing is they didn't take anything from inside the storages other than my rear one that is left open for my onboard charger to stay plugged in. I'll be correcting that today as well with a through hull charging port. Welcome to the forums. That was the one I was looking at, but reviews are all over the board. Where have you mounted the sensor for best results?

Smallies come in a wide variety of colors, and they can change very quickly. They can have very obvious vertical bars that come and go. I think the bars will change based on stress as well as being around other smallmouths. My friend did a study as a high school project on a pair of smallies, inserting tracking devices into both of them. Before inserting the devices, both smallies were in glass aquariums right next to one another. When a piece of cardboard was placed in between the tanks, both fish had a washed out color, remove the cardboard and within a minute or two both fish were heavily barred and their eyes were a more pronounced red. Replace the cardboard, and within 10 minutes or so the fish were back to their washed out color. Like others have stated, I think the smallmouth's surroundings have more to do with their color, than water color, depth, or light penetration. The fish in the first 3 pictures were all smallies caught out of stained water with the first 2 being from the same body of water. These three pictures are fish that came out of clear water, notice the same variation of color as those found in stained water.